Transcript: Q&A with Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Maryland) on the leaked NSA surveillance programs before the House Intelligence Committee on June 18, 2013

Partial transcript of Q&A with Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Maryland) on the NSA leaks & Edward Snowden before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on June 18, 2013:

Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Maryland):
…It’s unfortunate sometimes when we have incidents like this that…when negative or false information gets out, I think though those of us who work in this field – in the intelligence field everyday – know what the facts are and we’re trying to now present those facts through this panel. That’s important. But I would say that if I work in this field and if I were listening to the media accounts of what occurred in the beginning, I would be concerned too. So this is very important that we get the message out to the American public that what we do is legal and we’re doing it to protect our national security from attacks from terrorists.

…Again, it’s unfortunate when people disagree with you they attack you, they say things that aren’t true. We know these are federal judges on the FISA court. They have integrity. They will not approve anything they feel is wrong. We have 90-day periods where the court looks at this issue.

…Mr. General Alexander, do you feel in any way the FISA court is a rubber stamp based on the process? Our forefathers created a great system of government and it has checks and balances, and it’s who we are and that’s what we do in this country to follow our Constitution. It’s unfortunate that these federal judges are being attacked.

General Keith Alexander, Director of the National Security Agency:
I do not. I believe, as you have stated, that the federal judges on that court are superb. Our nation would be proud of what they do and the way they go back and forth to make sure we do this exactly right.

And every time we make a mistake, they work with us to make sure it is done correctly to protect our civil liberties and privacy and go through the court process.

They have been extremely professional. There is, from my perspective, no rubber stamp.

It’s kind of interesting. It’s like saying you just ran a 26-mile marathon, somebody says, “Well, that was just a jog.” Every time we work with the court, the details and the specifics of that that go from us up through the FBI through the Department of Justice through the court, on each one of those orders that we go to the court there is tremendous oversight and compliance and work. And I think the court has done a superb job.

More importantly, if I could, what we worked hard to do is to bring all of these under court supervision for just this reason. I mean, we’ve done the right thing, I think, for our country here.

Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Maryland):
The second area I want to get into, General Alexander, the public are saying, “Well, how did this happen?” We have rules. We have regulations. We have individuals that work in intelligence go through a system being classified. And yet here we have a technical person who had lost some jobs, who had a background that wasn’t considered the best. We have to learn from mistakes – how they occurred. What system are you or the Director of National Intelligence administration putting in effect now to make sure what happened in this situation that if another person were to turn against his or her country that we would have an alarm system that would not put us in this position right now?

General Keith Alexander, Director of the National Security Agency:
So this is a very difficult question, especially when that person is a system administrator and they get great access…

Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Maryland):
Why don’t you just say what a system administrator is?

General Keith Alexander, Director of the National Security Agency:
A system administrator is one that actually helps operate, run, set the conditions, the auditing and stuff on a system or a portion of the network. When one of those persons misuses their authorities, this is a huge problem.

So working with the Director of National Intelligence, what we are doing is working to come up with a two-person rule and oversight for those and ensure that we have a way of blocking people from taking information out of our system. This is work in progress.

We’re working with the FBI on the investigation. We don’t have all the facts yet. We’ve got to get those. And as we’re getting those facts, we are working through our system – Director Clapper has asked us to do that – providing that feedback to the rest of the community.